Gamtec
Gamtec (Chinese: 三協資訊 pinyin: sān xié zī xùn) is a game developer and publisher based in Taichung City, Taiwan that was established in June 1989. 公司簡介 (archived) The company developed a number of Mega Drive, NES/Famicom and PC強作預告 (archived) games. They claimed to have developed for the Gamate, Super A'Can, arcade, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. It often acted as a contract developer for other companies so it is frequently not credited in games it worked on. Gamtec has had a notable presence in Taiwan's gaming industry not only for being one of the most notable Tawianese Mega Drive developers, many of their members have either formed or joined other Taiwanese developers such as AV Artisan, Chuanpu Technology, Lonaisoft, Super Game and Vast Fame. Much of their contract work has been done under a number of notable publishers; including possibly Bit Corp., Ka Sheng, Sintax, Sun Mixing, and SKOB. History When Gamtec started off, their Famicom/Mega Drive games appeared to have been all self-published. Their early output mainly consisted of simple games and/or clones of existing games. One of their earlier titles, Bomboy, was a pack-in game for the Dynacom Megavision; a clone released in Brazil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jaQBO8AXp8 Also around this time, they've appeared to have connections or worked with both Sun Team Electronic Co., Ltd. and Jumbo Team, the former working with them on Dou Zhi Pin Pan - Wisdom Boy while the latter seems to be most of the people who worked on Gamtec's Chao Ji Tan Ke Da Zhan - Super Tank War. Sometime in 1994, Gamtec seemed to have dropped publishing their own games and have decided to become a contract developer, developing for Ming Super Chip Electronic Co., Ltd. and City Man Technology Co., Ltd.. They've also become associated with Chuanpu Technology and both have released games under the GM-95XXX ID. After Wucom Legend, they dropped the ID and the publishers they originally worked for but kept releasing stuff together. (The publisher they were working for was most likely Huang Jia Technology Co., they published Chuanpu's Feng Shen Ying Jie Zhuan whose manual had a flyer advertising Gamtec games.) They may have also been behind a few arcade games around this time such as Top Shooter and Super Bubble Bobble MD. These machines used modified Mega Drive hardware which made developing for them rather easy. Later in that same year, it looks as if the original Gamtec developers have disbanded; some have gone on to form or join Vast Fame. However, Gamtec itself has still remained although it's unknown what its activities were around that time. Around 1998-2002, a series of Mega Drive bootlegs were being produced; some of these include ''Sonic Jam 6'', Super Donkey Kong '99, Dragon Ball: Final Bout, and ''Pocket Monster''. Despite using the High Seas Havoc sound driver Chuanpu is known for, the style of the boxes for them seem very similar to Gamtec's (MD Compatible label on the spine, the back of the box just being an assortment of random screenshots). The header for these games are also similar to some of Gametc's other games and some have even used the PCPaint fonts. Some unlicensed/Game Boy Color games have also contained references to Gamtec inside the ROM as well. It's most likely Gamtec was producing these games albeit with a completely new team under their belt using their tools. (Yishen Liao may have still been involved, he's the only composer known to have worked with the High Seas Havoc sound engine). Many of these Mega Drive games have also received Super Famicom ports as well, a console Gamtec has claimed to work for. While it's unknown who worked on the games, the developers themselves may have originated from mainland China. Their activities appear to have ended around 2001-2002, most likely due to Taiwan joining the World Trade Organization in 2002. Gamtec currently operates the online gaming site Bingo King. As of 2009 it employed 12 people, but none of the staff from the early years of the company still work there. Staff List Directors (1989-Present?) *Zhongxi Yang (楊忠溪) - The CEO (and possibly founder?) of Gamtec although he had a hand in several games, dealing with directing, testing or their story. *Guozhe Yang (楊國哲) - Director, was also credited as a supervisor for Squirrel King and Shi Zi Wang II. He also received a Special Thanks credit in Wu Kong Wai Chuan. *Yongzhang Lin (林永章) - Supervisor, was also credited for being a tester in Wu Kong Wai Chuan and Squirrel King. He was also listed under Special Thanks in the Famicom version of Thunderbolt II. *Zhang Jingbo (張靜波) - Director although he was not credited in any known Gamtec game. http://datagovtw.com/company.php?id=23367850 Original Team (1992?-1996) Notable Members (1992?-1996) *Jimin Hong (洪吉民) (Alternate Romanizations: Ye Min Horng, Jemin Horng, Jemin Horng) - He programmed much of Gamtec's earlier library before taking on a director/technical guidance role in the later games. He established Lonaisoft in 1996 and continues to work on mobile games to this day. *Cuie Lin/Janet Lin (林翠娥) - One of Gamtec's main programmers and would later form Vast Fame in 1996. She was also credited as a planner for Adventurous Boy. She also made sound effects of some games. *Jinglong Yang/James Young (楊景隆) (May also be "Koko" in Tiny Toon Adventures 3's ROM) - Programmer for Gamtec who worked on the earlier Mega Drive titles. In the ROM header of the games he worked on, he would often leave some form of credits. He appeared to have left the company around 1995/1996 and joined Super Game's Taiwanese division. *Peijun Cai/Candy Tsai (蔡佩君) - Another programmer for Gamtec although his most notable work seems to include both versions of Thunderbolt II. (He also had a Script credit in the Famicom version as well). He received a Special Thanks credit for Adventurous Boy and was credited as a tester for Wu Kong Wai Chuan. *Zhenxin Zhu/Jen Shih (朱貞信) (Alternate Names: Jenshin Ju, Ryohga Ju) - One of the main artists at Gamtec. She took on a testing role instead for Wu Kong Wai Chuan - Wucom Legend. She received a Special Thanks credit for Di Guo Wang Chao: Ya Se Chuan Shuo Pian which was by Chuanpu and would later join Vast Fame. She may have also had a hand with Gowin's Fire Dragon, as "Rhyoga Ju" is credited there. *Qiongyi Ceng/Amanda Jen (曾瓊儀) - Artist whose most notable work was on Adventurous Boy, having done the story and art for that game, and 777 Casino. She is also credited in Wu Kong Wai Chuan for being a tester. *Yanping Wu (吳嫣萍) - Artist for Gamtec whose notably work was for planning and graphics for Wu Kong Wai Chuan. He also worked on the art for 777 Casino. *Jiaren Zhang (張嘉仁) - Artist for Gamtec whose notable work was for planning and graphics design on Wu Kong Wai Chuan. He also worked on the art for the Mega Drive version of Thunderbolt 2. *Baoyi Huang (黄寶儀) - Tester for Squirrel King and Shi Zi Wang II. She's the only tester in Squirrel King with a caricature in the credits and reappeared in another game. Jumbo Team / AV Artisan-related members (1992) Chao Ji Tan Ke Da Zhan - Super Tank War's credits seem to be a mix of Gamtec's team members as well as members who worked for AV Artisan and Jumbo Team. It's unknown if these members worked for Gamtec before forming those other companies or Jumbo Team collaborated with Gamtec for the game. *Wei Lu Cheng/Tony Zheng (鄭維禄) - The director for Chao Ji Tan Ke Da Zhan. He also did the sound effects. *Xuerue Song/Sam Song (宋學仁) - Worked on the graphics for Chao Ji Tan Ke Da Zhan. Chuanpu-related members (1995 / 1996?) Meng Huan Shui Guo Pan - 777 Casino's appears to be mostly a Gamtec production but it also mention a few Chuanpu members in the credits. *Bizhi Lin (林碧智) - Director for Meng Huan Shui Guo Pan. He also made sound effects to Barver Battle Saga - Tai Kong Zhan Shi. *Hulian Wu (巫慧蘭) - Programmer for Meng Huan Shui Guo Pan. Freelance Composers Gamtec's composers don't seem to work for just Gamtec but for multiple Taiwanese game developers that were in Taichung, most likely being commissioned to work on the soundtracks for their games. Either one (or both) may have helped with Super Game's music, as their music was outsourced to Gamtec. *Yishen Liao/Hanmin Liao (廖益伸/廖漢民) (Alternate romanizations: Hanmin Lu, Hanming Liao, Han Min Lioa) - Yishen worked with Twinbee 3's sound engine for the Famicom, as well as Shi Kin Joh's sound engine, Wonderboy III's sound engine and High Seas Havoc's sound engine for the Mega Drive (However, for Gamtec he did not use the High Seas Havoc sound engine). The fact he's the only known composer to have used High Seas Havocs sound engine may imply he was also responsible for composing the unconfirmed post-1996 Gamtec titles. He also composed for Chuanpu, Jumbo Team and Vast Fame. *Yamin Xu (許雅民) (Alternate romanizations: Hsu Ya-Ming, Ya-Min Hsu) - Yamin worked with Twinbee 3's sound engine as well as ''Shi Kin Joh's sound engine and Wonderboy III's sound engine for the Mega Drive. He also worked for AV Artisan. Unknown *Yuehui Chen (陳月蕙) - He was credited as a tester in Wu Kong Wai Chuan but appears to have no other known role with the games. It's unknown if he was a part of Gamtec's development team or dealt more with business operations like Guozhe Yang and Yongzhang Lin. *''Squirrel King''/''Shi Zi Wang II'' credits - These credits feature a number of people who have only shown up once for these games and haven't been involved in any other credited Gamtec games. It's unknown if all of these people were real and may have just been interns or if these were fake names to inflate the credits: **JAZZ DARK - Planning for Squirrel King **Wenquin Lin (林文欽) - Art for Squirrel King **Hongliang Wei (魏宏亮) - Art for Squirrel King **Shijie Wei (魏士傑) - Technical Guidance for Squirrel King **Jiawei Zhang (張家維) - Testing for Squirrel King **Zhiming Fang (方質銘) - Testing for Squirrel King **Hansheng Xu (許漢生) - Testing for Squirrel King **Duanchang Zhang (張葮菖) - Testing for Squirrel King **Xinpei Song (宋欣沛) - Art for Shi Zi Wang II **Zi Qin (欽仔) - Art for Shi Zi Wang II **Jiabin Liang (梁佳斌) - Testing for Shi Zi Wang II Confirmed games These are games where Gamtec is explicitly credited or is otherwise confirmed to have developed them. Famicom Mega Drive Arcade Unconfirmed games NES/Famicom Mega Drive Game Boy Color These three games all contain text in the ROM mentioning Gamtec, which seems to be from some kind of development tool, but it's unknown whether Gamtec actually produced these games itself or just supplied tools to someone else. Gamate *Unknown Gamate: Other Companies Hardware *Magicard https://segaretro.org/Magicard Connections to other companies *Super Game's music was outsourced to a Taiwanese company; as they use the same Twinbee 3 sound engine found in many of Gamtec's NES titles, this was presumably Gamtec. *The demo of Castlevania DX by Sintax contains text from the same Gamtec development tool used in the Game Boy Color games listed above. References External link *Bingo King (Chinese) Category:1980s companies Category:Companies from Taichung, Taiwan Category:Developers Category:Gamtec